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Israeli Government Adopts Belt-Tightening Plan, Excludes Extremists
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| Daily cost of
every reserve soldier reaches three hundred shekels (75
dollars)
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, April 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli
cabinet approved early Monday, April 29, an austerity plan to help
finance the military campaign against the Palestinians, a government
source said.
The
plan, which also has to be passed by parliament, aims to slash the
budget deficit by some 13 billion shekels (2.6 billion dollars) by
cutting spending and raising taxes, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
The
deficit is ballooning because of military expenditure to combat the
19-month intifada, which has cost some 2,000 lives, the vast majority
of which are Palestinian civilians.
Under
the plan, value added sales tax will go up by one percent, while
family allowances are to be cut by 200 million dollars.
The
price of fuel and cigarettes has already been hiked, while investment
income is also to be taxed.
But
the government had to back off from a wage freeze, under threats from
the powerful Histadrut trade union body to call a general strike.
The
cut in family allowances was also originally intended to affect only
those households which have no one serving in the Israeli army,
notably the Israeli Arabs and the Orthodox Jews.
The
plan, introduced by Israeli Finance Minister Salvan Shalom was
supported by seventeen ministers and was opposed by nine and one
minister abstained from voting.
On
Monday as well, a summer program for the Israeli Knesset has started
to study two proposals to discredit the prime minister which were
submitted by the Meretz and Shinoi parties.
The
Ministry of Finance has added a sum of four billion shekels (one
billion dollars) to the budget specified for the army to pay for the
“Defensive Shield” operation. The ministry says that the daily
cost of every reserve soldier reaches three hundred shekels (75
dollars), so for the thirty thousand reserve soldier the cost of
keeping them for one month reaches seventy million dollars.
According
to the ministry, the cost of every month of conflict with the
Palestinian people costs nearly 200 million dollars, which means that
the continuation of the conflict will end every chance for the Israeli
economy to grow.
Meanwhile,
the enrollment of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers has led to
massive losses in various economic sectors in the private and public
field.
For
example, many technological companies are completely out of business
after their experts and technicians were called for military services.
This was the main reason why the Ministry of Finance resorted to
forming an emergency plan to stop the deteriorating economy.
However,
Sharon’s government is not planning to decrease the money allotted
for the extremists in the government. The ministry of finance for
instance does not want to affect the Hiridi religious families who
have many children and the cost-cutting will not affect the teaching
sector which is specified for every religious and Hiridi party. This
sector costs Israeli more than a quarter billion dollars every year.
Sharon,
who is aware that his government will be unable to survive without the
support of the religious parties can not risk angering them. At the
same time, they too will not support a government which affects their
sectors.
However,
the exclusion of religious sectors from bearing the responsibility of
the financial war, has provoked the secular majority and their
representatives in the parliament and occupation syndicates.
Representatives
of these syndicates have questioned this anomaly, inquiring how the
religious sectors whose sons do not serve in the army can be excluded
from the financial responsibility of the war.
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